From 50% Loss To 1 Million

Hello,

I have lost about 50% of my trading account due to lack of patience and emotions. About 2 months ago I have changed my approach to trading and my performance changed. My goal is to make 1 million no matter how many years it will take. I can see some of you laughing, that is ok :)

My strategy is ti wait paitently for high probability setups on 4 hour charts, open trade risking max 2% of my capital and aim for 2 to 1 Reward/Risk ratio.

I hope this community can support me and keep me on track when losing streaks come.

Here is my profile
https://www.myfxbook.com/members/CalmXTrader/from-50-loss-1-million/586635

Thank you

Hey there,

Don't worry, not everyone is laughing. I also have my own private systems (which are not uploaded to myfxbook) which are doing great. If you keep trying long enough, also you will reach the 1 million :-)

Cheers,
Hans.

Well, first of all i don't think anyone will trade with InstaForex and will make any millions! They are Market Makers and they have the worst execution and spread in the market!

So you better use a good ECN broker with tight spreads, even if your targets are big, it's better to deal with a broker who charge less from you.

Yep, for losing accounts every broker will offer best execution and service.
Wait until you get profitable and InstaForex will make your trading very difficult. Particularly closing big winning trades can take very long time.
You have to find a broker that makes its profits from your comissions and not from your losing trades.

Hope you have found your trading style and keep it consistent and profitable!

Thank you for your comments, so do you recommend any broker?

i like excelmarkets for having all of my capital there

BlackCode posted:
Well, first of all i don't think anyone will trade with InstaForex and will make any millions! They are Market Makers and they have the worst execution and spread in the market!

So you better use a good ECN broker with tight spreads, even if your targets are big, it's better to deal with a broker who charge less from you.

Instaforex states on their website that they are ECN broker

CalmXTrader posted:
Instaforex states on their website that they are ECN broker

Market Makers can be ECN brokers as well.
That's why some ECN brokers have invented 'TRUE ECN' brand to distinguish from bucketshops!
This thread might be helpfull:
https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/beginners-bootcamp/12356-what-true-ecn.html

All ECN brokers offering 0.01 min lot size are routing and matching orders internally - not TRUE ECN.
Only orders larger or equal to 0.1 lot can be routed directly to TIER-1 liquidity providers (= TRUE ECN).
But if broker has internal matching they can decide on customer basis how they route his/hers orders for >= 0.1 lot sizes.
Loosing customers are of course matched internally and winning customers are (can be) routed to real TIER-1 liquidity providers.
Hence you got different execution depending are you loosing or winning customer!
(fixed a typo)

CalmXTrader posted:
Hello,

I have lost about 50% of my trading account due to lack of patience and emotions. About 2 months ago I have changed my approach to trading and my performance changed. My goal is to make 1 million no matter how many years it will take. I can see some of you laughing, that is ok :)

My strategy is ti wait paitently for high probability setups on 4 hour charts, open trade risking max 2% of my capital and aim for 2 to 1 Reward/Risk ratio.

I hope this community can support me and keep me on track when losing streaks come.

Here is my profile
https://www.myfxbook.com/members/CalmXTrader/from-50-loss-1-million/586635

Thank you

All the best buddy. You can do it.

CalmXTrader posted:
Thank you for your comments, so do you recommend any broker?

it depends which country u live and how easy is to fund account

sareen posted:


All the best buddy. You can do it.

Thank you for your support :)

Why do you think you'll be able to turn this account around and into $1mil?

The equity curve looks like steady slope followed by a short breath where you have achieved a bit of growth.

If you can grow this into even $10,000 I'll be seriously impressed and offer you a job :)

Good luck, but the odds are stacked heavily against you being able to recover this account even back to break even.

4h....might be too long. i manually trade 1m, +88% since June 2012 on 15000 usd initial bal. Trade the news, it usually is predictable as long as u can quickly catch the trend.
no vps needed as it usually is worse than pc connection. i never trade less than 0,5 lot. once i hit 100% i withdraw my initial bal and star again. i have mt4 on my phone so that i can trade if needed, although i avoid phone trading coz its hard to read charts

NickMcDonald posted:
Why do you think you'll be able to turn this account around and into $1mil?

The equity curve looks like steady slope followed by a short breath where you have achieved a bit of growth.

If you can grow this into even $10,000 I'll be seriously impressed and offer you a job :)

Good luck, but the odds are stacked heavily against you being able to recover this account even back to break even.

Yes, I can completely understand your point of view :)

Why do I think.....? Well, let´s say power of belief :)

Nick,

but to honestly answer your question: I have changed my trading style somewhere in mid May 2013. So I believe this strategy is profitable long term.

Hmm, I believe that a good manual intraday trader can make 1% a day on good conditions. Maybe 10-20% a month at best.
But I don't know anybody who has done this consistently on forex - maybe swing traders that do a dozen trades a year per symbol. But that's too slow trading style for me :) And they (swing traders) do have loosing years even though they are profitable in the long run!

@CalmXTrader has done ~2% profit and ~10% DD after May 13th. That's a good achievement - or you are just lucky!
If you manage to double your account (to $2K-$3K figures) by Decemeber 31st 2013 I think you can become a good trader.
If you do more than that you must take too big risks or you are a real genius. And they don't last long because manual trading is (can be) very consuming.

Hi,

First of all i think that you are on your way to become a great trader as you are asking for help and advice and i congratulate you. I took a look at your account and i think that there are positive points in your trading despite the fact that your result is negative. To begin, i think that it will be important to post the positive points :

- The first point is that you are using Stop loss and that's excellent ( I don't know how or what it your strategy to place your stop loss ) But i think that this is protecting your account in a certain matter.
- The second point that i find great is that you are taking trades that have a risk to reward ratio equal to 1:2 and that's very good.
- The third point is that you don't seem to over trading ( It depends of course on the time frame you are trading )
- The fourth point is that you have discipline and you respect your stop loss and take profit and that's very very important.

After all, you have to see the good points in your trading and i mean these points are very very good and i really congratulate you.


On the other hand, it will be important to highlight the bad points so you can improve your trading. Here's my thoughts about it :

- First point is MONEY MANAGEMENT. I think that you don't have a clean approach in managing your money. This is a very bad point as it can wipe out your account no matter how good is your strategy. So i would advice you not to risk more then 3% on the overall positions you have in the market.

- Second point is Risk Taking : I think that you are taking inappropriate risk. you are increasing your lot size while your account is decreasing ( I know that this might be included in money management ) But i prefer to put it in the risk one.

- Third point is that you are trading several currency pairs which have different volatility index and you are not adjusting your risk to adapt at these currency pairs.

So as you can see, there are a lot of positive points that you have to be proud of and a lot of negative points that you have to see again and improve.

In what concern your task in achieving 1000.000 $, i think that this is very possible but with a different equity balance and of course with a lot of time and not 2 or 3 years. There is just a lot of hype out there that the reality is 98% of traders deal with trading as gambling. So please, in order to know what you are able to do and what you are not able to do, take a look at the HSBC hedge fund index so you can compare yourself to the best hedge funds out there :

https://fr.slideshare.net/BrianShapiro1/hsbc-hedge-weekly-2013-no12

So good luck , be proud of what you achieved and trade well.

Good luck and safe trade.

Thank you @tradingexpert for your positive and constructive criticism!

I just want to point out that the more capital you have to preserve the less your profits can be.
And vice verse, if your trading capital is $1.000 you can (or will) risk it all.
see https://www.barclayhedge.com/research/indices/cta/sub/cta.html

The problem with forex retail market industry is that there is 1.000.000 customers who has each $1.000 account and most of them lose it all. And that keeps forex retail market industry doing well.

If you have $1.000 and double it every year can can be millionaire in 10 years!
But it means that you will risk every year all of your trading capital.
If you have $500.000 will you risk it all to get $1.000.000 or lose it all and start with nothing? Yes? No?
People don't understand that if they have 1K in their pockets it is *not* the same than having 1M in their pockets (or bank account).
In reality people with 1M are not prepared or willing to lose all their money to double their money. Most of them quit trading forex when they loose 10% of their equity - or at least change their fund manager.

It's all about risk management. And you capital - how much you can loose without loosing your sleep.

Scenario 1: 1M in 10 years (or nothing)
$1 000 or nothing
$2 000 2nd year or nothing
$4 000 3rd year or nothing
$8 000 4th year or nothing
$16 000 5th year or nothing
$32 000 6th year or nothing
$64 000 7th year or nothing
$128 000 8th year or nothing
$256 000 9th year or nothing
$512 000 10th year or nothing
$1 024 000 11th year or nothing

Scenario 2: +5M in 10 years
$10 000 000 or $9 000 000
$11 000 000 or $10 000 000
$12 100 000 or $11 000 000
$13 310 000 or $12 100 000
$14 641 000 or $13 310 000
$16 105 100 or $14 641 000
$17 715 610 or $16 105 100
$19 487 171 or $17 715 610
$21 435 888 or $19 487 171
$23 579 477 or $21 435 888
$25 937 425 or $23 579 477
$28 531 167 or $25 937 425

petays posted:
Thank you @tradingexpert for your positive and constructive criticism!

I just want to point out that the more capital you have to preserve the less your profits can be.
And vice verse, if your trading capital is $1.000 you can (or will) risk it all.
see https://www.barclayhedge.com/research/indices/cta/sub/cta.html

The problem with forex retail market industry is that there is 1.000.000 customers who has each $1.000 account and most of them lose it all. And that keeps forex retail market industry doing well.

If you have $1.000 and double it every year can can be millionaire in 10 years!
But it means that you will risk every year all of your trading capital.
If you have $500.000 will you risk it all to get $1.000.000 or lose it all and start with nothing? Yes? No?
People don't understand that if they have 1K in their pockets it is *not* the same than having 1M in their pockets (or bank account).
In reality people with 1M are not prepared or willing to lose all their money to double their money. Most of them quit trading forex when they loose 10% of their equity - or at least change their fund manager.

It's all about risk management. And you capital - how much you can loose without loosing your sleep.

Scenario 1: 1M in 10 years (or nothing)
$1 000 or nothing
$2 000 2nd year or nothing
$4 000 3rd year or nothing
$8 000 4th year or nothing
$16 000 5th year or nothing
$32 000 6th year or nothing
$64 000 7th year or nothing
$128 000 8th year or nothing
$256 000 9th year or nothing
$512 000 10th year or nothing
$1 024 000 11th year or nothing

Scenario 2: +5M in 10 years
$10 000 000 or $9 000 000
$11 000 000 or $10 000 000
$12 100 000 or $11 000 000
$13 310 000 or $12 100 000
$14 641 000 or $13 310 000
$16 105 100 or $14 641 000
$17 715 610 or $16 105 100
$19 487 171 or $17 715 610
$21 435 888 or $19 487 171
$23 579 477 or $21 435 888
$25 937 425 or $23 579 477
$28 531 167 or $25 937 425

Hi,

You are right, i agree with the fact that if you have 1000$ you can become Millionaire in 10 years by doubling your account amount every and each year. But the fact is, that we all need reference in order to set targets and know how well we are doing. In what concerns me, my target for 2013 was 30% and my max drawdown is 7%. This is what i am willing to achieve . I would like to do so carefully and without stress as this final one is the worst enemy of traders. Reality is that trading is very very complicated and very hard, but when you eliminate or decrease the stress factor ( By having a trading strategy and trading plan that you are following ) Then trading becomes easier.

In fact as you said, money can be doubled or you can lose everything. Everything depends on your goals and what you are searching to achieve in this industry.

Having comparison tools like barclays ( Hedge fund that have nothing to do with the bank ) And the HSBC report, allow us as traders to see if our system is doing good and allow us to adapt the system according to market conditions.

This is trading and not gambling. It is sad to say so, but if there are no losers in this industry, there are no winners, so continuation and profitability with time make from us sharks or minnows.

we will surely keep learning and seeking advice all along our trading career because this is the right path to stay in the game.

Good luck and Thank you for your thoughts.